Russian tourists as wellness service consumers in Peurunka Spa Hotel

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(1)RUSSIAN TOURISTS AS WELLNESS SERVICE CONSUMERS IN PEURUNKA SPA HOTEL. Aleksandra Ilina. University of Jyväskylä Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences Master’s Thesis in Social Sciences of Sport Autumn 2019.

(2) UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences ALEKSANDRA ILINA Russian tourists as wellness service consumers in Peurunka Spa Hotel. ABSTRACT Master’s Thesis, 72 pages (Appendices, 6 pages) Social Sciences of Sport Autumn 2019. Demand for new services and interest in health and wellbeing nowadays has forced the tourism industry to create new attributes of attraction in order to maintain customer flow at high levels. The situation with the international sanctions (including economic, diplomatic and sports sanctions) against Russia and the collapse of the Russian ruble has made it difficult to attract Russian customers to Finland as their ability to spend money on traveling has decreased significantly. Particularly the Finnish tourism industry has struggled with searching the ways to bring back the same turnovers that it had before the summer of 2014. The aim of this study is to identify the potential wellness customers of Peurunka Spa Hotel among Russian tourists. This is a quantitative research, which uses the data of 75 participants collected through a questionnaire. The data was acquired in 2014 as part of a research project of active and wellness tourism in the rehabilitation and wellness center Peurunka in Central Finland. The study compares attitudes and behaviors of Russian tourists before and after the tremendous changes on the tourism market that affected Finland and lowered the number of tourists from Russia there. The questionnaire includes four parts which each focus on certain aspects related to the case company, to Russian travelers and their expectation and experiences at the Peurunka Spa Hotel. The results of this study illustrate that among the factors that have a great impact in Russian customers is the usage of adequate promotion channels, depending on the age, gender, as well as that a destination referral from a friend or co-worker plays an important and is considered to be a reliable source of information for Russians. Additionally, the study discovered that Russian tourists tend to come back to the same facility if their previous experiences were enjoyable. The results also reveal that tourists who are concerned about their health and who are regularly physically active are more likely to be attracted by the wellness services of a holiday destination. The majority of the Peurunka’s customers belong to the category of family travelers, and therefore, the availability of family packages for all the services has a potential to increase their satisfaction. Most of the tourists from Russia belong to the middle-age category of customers, which means that the focus of services must be rather on wellness than on rehabilitation and medical diagnostics. Keywords: Wellness, Tourism, Russian Tourists, Peurunka.

(3) List of Tables Table 1. Special services offered at Peurunka. (Peurunka’s official website, 2015) Table 2. Foreign visitors in Finland in 2007-2014. (Finnish Tourist Board, 2015). Table 3. Common segmentation variables used in consumer markets. (Ferrell & Hardline, 2012, 137). Table 4. The link between the research questions and the questions from the survey. Table 5. Age categories of visitors of the study. Table 6. Tourist category distribution among Russian customers in Peurunka. Table 7. Main reason for a visit to Peurunka among Russian customers. Table 8. Visitor categories among those with the main motive of sport and PA. Table 9. Visitor categories among respondents for whom sport and PA had a significant impact to choose Peurunka. Table 10. The frequency of respondents’ workouts in relation to their age. Table 11. Russian tourist in Peurunka on the scope of customer segmentation process. Table 12. Peurunka’s services as factors influencing the customer's decision for holiday destination..

(4) List of Figures Figure 1. Examples of wellness services offered by Peurunka Spa Hotel to customers. (Peurunka’s official Instagram page, 2014-2017) Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/peurunka/ on 28.06.2017. Figure 2. Expanded wellness model. (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001, 3) Figure 3. The Global Wellness Tourism Economy: 2013 & 2014. (Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 19) Figure 4. The Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2015. (Global Wellness Institute, 2017, 3) Figure 5. Differences between medical tourism and wellness tourism. (Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 20) Figure 6. The Wellness Tourism and Medical Tourism Market Spectrum. (Global Spa Summit Report, 2011, iii) Figure 7. The Six Dimensions of Wellness Model. (Hettler, 1976, 1) Figure 8. Currency exchange ratio dynamics (EUR to RUB) during 2014-2017. (CBR, 2017) Figure 9. Distribution of the respondents by age category. Figure 10. Russian visitors in Peurunka by the level of education. Figure 11. Marital status of Russian visitors in Peurunka. Figure 12. Information channels used by Russian tourists to discover the services offered by Peurunka. Figure 13. Sport services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Hotel Spa. Figure 14. Health services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Hotel. Figure 15. Spa services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Hotel Spa. Figure 16. Positioning of Peurunka Spa Hotel’s on the scope of medical and wellness tourism markets. (adapted from Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 11) Figure 17. Histogram of self-evaluated health among Russian customers of Peurunka. Figure 18. Independent T-test’s results (SPSS program) for hypothesis about the relationship between the age of customers and their health condition in the past 6 months. Figure 19. General profile of Russian tourists in Peurunka represented by gender..

(5) Figure 20. Visual representation of several common characteristics of a Russian tourist in Peurunka..

(6) Table of contents ABSTRACT. 2. Table of contents. 3. 1 WELLNESS AS A KEY TOOL FOR PEURUNKA. 4. 1.1 Case Company. 6. 1.2 The structure of the thesis. 9. 2 WELLNESS CONCEPTS INSIDE THE TOURISM INDUSTRY. 12. 2.1 Defining Wellness Tourism. 14. 2.2 Market segmentation in tourism. 23. 2.3 Russian Tourists as a Customer Segment. 26. 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND STUDY IMPLEMENTATION. 30. 3.1 Research Questions. 30. 3.2 Data Collection. 31. 3.3 Data Description. 32. 4 RESULTS. 34. 4.1 Profile of Russian tourists in Peurunka. 34. 4.2 Destination attractiveness: reasons to visit. 41. 4.3 Role of PA and sport for Russian customers in Peurunka. 47. 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. 54. 5.1 Russian tourists in Peurunka within the market segmentation model 54 5.2 Ideas for future development. 59. 5.3 Limitations of the study. 60. 5.4 Conclusions. 61. REFERENCES. 62. List of figures. 68. List of tables. 70. APPENDIX. 71.

(7) 1 WELLNESS AS A KEY TOOL FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY Wellness tourism has become a significant sub-sector of tourism industry nowadays. More and more tourists try to combine holidays with health-related activities to benefit in both ways simultaneously, as majority spends a lot of time at work and can afford only short breaks. Wellness tourism is named to be one of the fastest growing forms of international and domestic tourism in the world: "Wellness tourism grew from a $563 billion market in 2015 to $639 billion in 2017, or 6.5 percent annually, more than twice as fast as tourism overall (3.2 %)" (Global Wellness Institute, 2018). Wellness tourism is defined as travel with the purpose of advertising health and wellbeing via physical, psychological, or spiritual activities, and is characterized by customers with proactive approach that seek new experiences that benefit their health (Global Wellness Institute, 2018). In other words, wellness tourism is not about medical tourism, nor about extremely expensive spas that are usually only for showing social wealthy status. It is about promoting a healthy lifestyle that is worth paying special attention by strategic and marketing managers. A research report "4WR: Wellness for Whom, Where and What? Wellness Tourism 2020" by Wellness Tourism Worldwide (2011) states that the most popular wellness tourism services are beauty treatments, sport and fitness services, leisure and recreational spas, and spa & wellness resorts.. Complicated political and economic situation between Russia and various countries of the Western world had made it even more challenging to achieve such goals, but understanding what Russian tourists expect when traveling abroad would definitely make it easier. to discover the most effective ways to increase the awareness and. attractiveness of Peurunka in the eyes of Russian tourists. The fact that the collected data is from the year 2014 allows to examine Russian customers from their traveler’s perspective, as their responses were not influenced by additional factors related to those changes in the international relations between several European countries and Russia during the years 2014-2017.. 6.

(8) First of all, Finnish wellness tourism market is highly competitive. Most of the Finnish tourist facilities offer an easy access to pure nature as well as to a wide range of services focused on treatment, spa, and wellness. South-Karelia region of Finland is especially competitive in terms of Russian tourists as it is the most well-known among them. Both in northern and southern regions Finnish spa resorts located close to Russian-Finnish border are popular among Russians because of the short distance from home, easy access, developed transportation network, and service of a good quality adapted to different Russian customer groups. The spa resort in these regions are mostly focused on Russian customers, therefore, they are more aware of the best techniques that are able to attract these customers and maintain their loyalty.. Secondly, there is a clear need for retargeting in the direction of a new clientele in Peurunka because of the changes in the resort’s infrastructure in the direction of wellness and sport services for its customers. Earlier the resort was more focused on medical services, particularly on rehabilitation, but modern society dictates a need for services preventing medical care in the future more often than a need for services taking care of customers with existing diseases. Also, overall the number of customers of the original target group, the war veterans, decreased with years. The next subchapter describes this topic more thoroughly.. Another reason for the importance of the current thesis is that the research findings can be used for development of health and physical activity services in Jyväskylä region, especially considering the fact that the city of Jyväskylä is known to be the "Athens of Finland", due to the existence of a Sport Faculty in the University of Jyväskylä, and hugely invests in sport development for all age categories of its citizens. Finally, the lack of studies in customers’ perceptions of wellbeing tourism is another important factor. Wellness tourism is still a relatively new concept in the academic world, while it is more often discussed in commercial journals or by consumer food products companies.. 7.

(9) 1.1 Case Company Peurunka This study aims to develop a new pathway for Peurunka (case company) that would help to increase awareness and improve the attractiveness of the resort for Russian tourists through its wellness services.. Figure 1. Examples of wellness services offered by Peurunka Spa Hotel to customers. (Peurunka’s official Instagram page, 2014-2017). Spa Hotel and Rehabilitation Foundation Peurunka (which will be referred to as Peurunka in this thesis) was founded in 1974, approximately 20 km north from Jyväskylä (Central Finland). The original purpose of its establishment was to take care of the war veterans, providing rehabilitation and wellness services. (Ahtiainen, 2014; adapted from Sulamaa 2007, 179.) It is known as a well-respected brand that provides superior and professional service to tourists and rehabilitation clients. The company’s operations are split into two wellness fields: the spa hotel and rehabilitation centre. The hotel is considered to be one of the major tourist destinations in Finland (Visit Jyväskylä, 2017). Peurunka was originally built as a rehabilitation center for veterans of 8.

(10) the Second World War. Nowadays it caters to tourists and offers a wide spectrum of different services apart from veteran rehabilitation.. Currently Peurunka’s objective is to be at the leading edge of wellness and fitness, in promoting wellbeing lifestyle to both individuals and organisations. Among the core values of the company are: "energy efficiency, the environment and sustainability". (Peurunka’s official website, 2015). The resort is situated on the shore of Peurunka lake, in Laukaa (Jyväskylä, Finland). Due to highly competitive situation in the tourist market these days, Peurunka also seeks to find new and unique solutions for its customers and to differentiate itself from the similar-service providers.Peurunka provides an extensive assortment of services to its customers that are presented in the Table 1.. Table 1. Special services offered at Peurunka. (Peurunka’s official website, 2015) Core services. Rehabilitation Center. Spa and swimming classes. Skeletal and joint problems. Bowling. Neurological rehabilitation. Disc golf. Disabled persons. Paddling and boat rowing. Therapies. Curling and other ice sports. Working and functional capacity assessments. Hot air balloon rides. Cardiac rehabilitation. Skiing and other outdoor trails. Working capacity maintenance. Golf Indoor: gym, games, group activities Winter and summer outdoor activities Testing services. 9.

(11) Russian customers have played an important role in the business of Peurunka, as they are known to be loyal customers who tend to visit the same destination repeatedly. However the trend has already changed as Finland now has a clear image of a country for recreational and health-related holidays among Russian tourists, therefore, maintaining an outstanding image of such country is an important mission for all tourism enterprises. Peurunka has been focused on Russian customers for quite a long period of time already, but its managers understand now that this customer segment requires additional investigation and attention in order to retain this group. (Roponen, 2017). Pricing for core and additional services in tourism industry helps to understand the social background of the visitors of a given resort. In 2017 the price range at Peurunka varied from 450-500 EUR per 3 nights (2 adults) to 800-850 EUR per 5 nights (2 adults) in June-July. A standard twin room accommodation includeded breakfast and access to spa. The same kind of accommodation for 7 nights (2 adults) would cost from 1000 EUR and above in summer months. (Booking.com website, 2017) From the price range it is clear that the resort is relatively expensive and more likely to attract travellers with consistently high income rather than people searching for budget holidays. In addition, most of the activities cost extra on top of the accommodation expenses. Luxury holiday cottages are a different type of accommodation offered in Peurunka apart from the hotel that, obviously, cost even more. Therefore, it is highly important for Peurunka to be aware which particular customer segment of Russian tourists it has the objective to attract by defining their price sensitivity, by understanding what type of holidays they are looking for, by defining what resort services they are potentially interested in.. One of the largest competitors of Peurunka in the region of Central Finland is Holidays Club Himos in winter season. It offers the widest range of winter activities: 21 slopes for skiers and snowboarders along with the Snow Park and a range of cross-country tracks all in one place (Visit Central Finland, 2017). In addition, there are various summer activities, including sports and several typical Finnish activities (such as sauna and lake-swimming). Revontuli Resort is a destination in this region that provides its customers with nature-engaging and active holidays both in winter and summer: a 10.

(12) number of saunas that introduce customers to Finnish culture, hot tub, swimming in a lake, fishing, golf, boat rentals, hiking, and so on. Varjola Holiday Center is another all year-round resort which is famous for its diverse programs thanks to the location by the Kuusankoski rapids. At the same time the resort is neighbouring Peurunka and creates a tough competition for it by offering adventures at rapids, ATV and off-road safaris, rafting, hiking, "Survival games", and even "Country Olympics" (Varjola Holiday Center website, 2017). 1.2 The aim of the study On the very first stage the topic was narrowed to determination of Russian tourists’ role as a key future perspective user of health-related services in Finland. Initially, the idea for this thesis topic came from the author’s background, both cultural and educational, as well as the availability of a valuable data that had not been studied or analysed yet. The author is in possession of a Bachelor level education in Tourism Management, which was mainly focused on Russian tourists. Also the data from Russian tourists collected as a part of a mutual research in active and wellness tourism at the Peurunka Spa Hotel by Vehmas and Piirainen in 2014 offered a good opportunity for a distinctive study that would look into the characteristics of Russian visitors in the facility without being affected by external changes, described in this thesis. The topic, accordingly, was also narrowed location-wise from Finland to a particular company, Peurunka Spa Hotel, as a health-service provider.. In other words, it can be said that the study was shaped by both factors — author’s research question choice and the available data from the previously conducted research. Due to this, the current study primarily introduces a reader to the case company and the theoretical basis of the topic before moving further towards the details about the study implementation.. Wellness concept will be defined from the perspective of several dimensions, including market segmentation patterns, travel motivations, and Russians as a customer group. One of the most important tasks is to provide a clear picture of the link between Russian 11.

(13) tourists’ flow and causes of the significant changes in the market of wellness services. The situation in the tourist markets that are focusing a lot on Russian customers has been changing since 2014 due to the political confrontations between Russia and a number of countries around the world. Such kind of an external cause provoked the necessity of many international businesses to adjust to the new market rules due to a clear negative trend in revenues after intensively decreasing number of Russian travellers abroad. Therefore, the author finds it essential to explain the topic and everything that is interconnected with it before introducing the research problem and the research implementation.. The main idea about this study is to focus on two important subjects: Russian customers in Finland and wellness tourism. The data collected in 2014 represents a great value for the study as it allows to determine the actual profile of a Russian tourist in a Finnish hotel facility without being impacted by unfavourable currency exchange rates and sanctions towards Russia. In other words, the data is able to provide a genuine image of target customer group of Peurunka, including group’s background profile, expectations’ fulfilment, influencing factors, and behavioural characteristics. It is vital for Peurunka to discover much features now as wellness tourism is steadily growing among Russians, as well as because of the slow recovery of the tourist flow from Russia, which gives hope to be back to the same turnovers as before 2014.. 1.3 The structure of the thesis The academic background of the study is followed by an introduction to the research questions and study implementation. The empirical part clarifies the reasons behind the final selection of research questions, the aims of the study, and how the data collection was performed.. In the last chapters, discussion and conclusion, the author proposes a general Russian tourist’s profile in Peurunka represented in an interactive way: the illustration shows the background information of a typical tourist by gender, complemented by additional 12.

(14) information in a text format that gives a detailed information gathered from all the results for secondary questions. The proposal is based on the market segmentation model discussed in chapter 2.2, which is applicable as a framework for the research questions of the study.. Furthermore, critics and limitations of it are presented in order to consider objectively the research and its outcomes. The references, figures, and tables of the study are divided into separate lists, followed by an appendix, which provides the full questionnaire (used for the research) in English. Upon request, the questionnaire is also available in Russian language, in the original version that was distributed among the study participants.. 13.

(15) 2 WELLNESS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY The demand for new services and interests in health and wellbeing nowadays have forced tourism industry to create new attributes of attraction in order to maintain attractiveness levels for customers. The recent economic sanctions towards Russia are assumed to be one of the reasons for the need of Finnish tourism industry to deal with hard times and struggle in searching for the ways to bring back same turnovers that it had before summer 2014. Exchange currency rates are estimated to be the main factors, which continue preventing many Russian tourists from traveling even to their neighbourgh countries, like Finland, and the number of visa applications to Schengen zone dropped accordingly. In obedience to Russian Travel Digest (2015), "for the year, the number of applications for visas of Russians to foreign countries fell by 37 percent".. As it was briefly mentioned earlier, the reason why this research is focused on Russian visitors is that this tourist segment has been playing the most important role for Finland due its size. According to Finnish Tourist Board, the number of Russian tourist kept on growing during the years 2007-2012 and constituted almost a half of all foreign visitors of Finland in 2011-2012 (see Table 2). The number of Russian visitors was growing throughout these years from 2,07M (2007) to 3,5M (2012). Statistics of Finland provided via Visit Finland website illustrate that despite all the tremendous changes in the relations between Russia and EU, in 2014 Russians maintained its position as the country bringing the largest tourist income flows (956M EUR) and as the one with the greatest number of visitors staying overnight (1,34M). Nevertheless, it is obvious how significantly the number of Russian tourists in Finland dropped comparing to 2012: almost by 62 percent (Finnish Tourist Board, 2015).. Table 2 illustrates the significance of the Russian customer segment on the Finnish tourism market. The data includes the following three (3) types of foreign visitors: day visitors, tourists staying overnight, and transit passengers. According to Visit Finland Visitor Survey, Finland received in total 7.6M foreign visitors in 2014.. 14.

(16) Table 2. Foreign visitors in Finland in 2007-2014. (Finnish Tourist Board, 2015). Country. 2007 (1000 ). 2008 (10009. 2009 (1000). 2010 (10009. 2011 (1000). 2012 (1000). 2014 (1000). 2 070. 2 331. 2 192. 2 561. 3 261. 3 578. 3812. Estonia. 561. 522. 583. 561. 708. 758. 505. Sweden. 768. 765. 753. 712. 681. 702. 654. Germany. 350. 376. 332. 363. 399. 342. 352. United Kingdom. 312. 316. 267. 263. 278. 273. 272. Norway. 194. 187. 160. 195. 216. 235. 83. Japan. 103. 105. 142. 109. 150. 143. 291. France. 131. 120. 94. 132. 145. 127. 197. USA. 120. 114. 104. 89. 121. 174. 191. Spain. 83. 116. 123. 110. 120. 89. 150. 5 736. 6 072. 5 695. 6 182. 7 260. 7636. c.a. 7600. Russia. ALL. Russian Union of Travel Industry (2013) estimated that 35 percent (or 51.3 million) of the whole population of Russia had vacations, out of which: 11M chose health-related or wellness tourism, 8M visited so called "sanatoriums" (partly medical, partly wellness facilities), and 3M went abroad for wellness holidays.. Surprisingly, for Finland wellness tourism remains to be a sensitive term and topic since Finns themselves realize that their facilities cannot be compared to those of the international market. Finland remains to be the only EU country, which does not have any star rating system for hotels: thus the reputation of the accommodation places is typically based on the customers’ feedbacks. One of the most common rating systems is AA system, the British one: a hotel can be awarded with 1 to 5 rating stars if it possesses all the minimum requirements (Caribbean Tourist Organization, 2002). Each rating star has its own minimum requirements, for example 24-hour room service, laundry and dry-cleaning for 4-star hotels (which is not obligatory if a hotel aims for 15.

(17) 1-3-star recognition). There is also a number of other awards or rating systems, such as AA Rosette Awards or Red Star Awards. (Caribbean Tourist Organization, 2002) 2.1 Defining Wellness Tourism In the Finnish language there is no such word for wellness, and it is simply translated as "health" or "wellbeing" (Smith & Puczko, 2014). The direct translation of the Finnish word "hyvinvointi" is more closely related to the term wellbeing. Therefore, the difference between wellness and wellbeing and other words associated or confused with wellbeing in Finland should be clearly defined, as they are often used interchangeably. Shah and Marks (2004, 2) make a distinction between happiness and wellbeing as follows: "Well-being is more than just happiness. As well as feeling satisfied and happy, well-being means developing as a person, being fulfilled, and making a contribution to the community". Mueller and Kaufmann (2001, 2), using as the basis Ardell’s (1977, 1986) definition of wellness, determine it. "as a state of health featuring the harmony of body, mind and spirit, with self-responsibility, physical fitness/beauty care, healthy nutrition/diet, relaxation (need for distressing)/meditation, mental activity/ education and environmental sensitivity/social contacts as fundamental elements".. 16.

(18) Figure 2. Expanded wellness model. (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001, 3).. In relation to this interpretation, Mueller and Kaufmann (2001, 3) also provide a visual representation of the expanded wellness model, shown in Figure 2. The distinctive feature of the wellness model by Mueller and Kaufmann is the inclusion of such factors as nutrition/diet and physical fitness/beauty care. It would not be appropriate to name one of the factors of this model as the most important one and others as supporting or secondary. Companies and organisations that offer wellness services aim nowadays for incorporating all the segments "under one roof". The main idea of such model is to cover all the components included in the concept of wellness: health, body, mind, relaxation, social aspect, and environmental aspect. If we focus only on one or several segments of this model, it cannot be considered as wellness because excluding one piece in such circle might diminish others.. National Wellness Institute (2016) defines the phenomenon of wellness as "an active process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a more successful existence". The Global Wellness Tourism Economy report (2013) indicates wellness 17.

(19) tourism to be a $439 USD billion worth market inside the overall frame of $3.2 USD trillion tourism industry. In other words, it accredits 14 percent of all domestic and international tourism expenditures. Figure 3 illustrates the significance of the wellness tourism on the market via simple comparison to the other related sub-segments. The largest tourism market is, obviously, cultural tourism, which means people traveling to "specific cultural attractions such as heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their normal place of residence" (Richards, 1996,23; adapted from Ivanovic, 2008).. Culinary tourism represents more or less the same share on the market as the wellness tourism worth $350-550b USD. Its main idea is to explore new tastes, something different for one’s usual ration. Long (2013) suggests that food can be not only a vehicle but also a destination for travellers. By vehicle the author means food being a mean of making us explore a different culture without leaving our home: for example, trying a recipe from a cookbook with a cuisine of a certain country or visiting a local restaurant offering dishes from some exotic region. Meanwhile, food as a tourism destination makes people physically travel to exotic places for food and drink tasting them in their actual birthplaces and exploring the culture of food serving there.. 18.

(20) Figure 3. The Global Wellness Tourism Economy in 2013 & 2014. (Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 19). Culinary tourism is followed by eco and sustainable tourism industry, which is described by Wearing and Neil (2013, xv) as "a travel to relatively undisturbed or protected natural areas, fostering understanding, appreciation and conservation of the flora, fauna, geology and ecosystems of an area" while being worth $325-480b USD. Adventure tourism is often understood as a part of sport tourism while in fact it composes only a part of it, combined also with wellness tourism and ecotourism, it is constantly growing and acquiring a bigger share on the international market. Adventure tourism is described as a trip that involves nature element, physical activity, and cultural immersion, or at least two out of these three components (World Tourism Organisation, 2014). Medical tourism, spiritual tourism, and so-called "voluntourism" are relatively smaller than all the above-mentioned ones. Medical tourism is connected to wellness industry and this study discusses this particular topic further. Spiritual tourism is defined by ATLAS as "a religiously oriented form of tourism, which is emotionally satisfactory, includes visits to the architecturally significant temples, participate in 19.

(21) retreats or follows pilgrimage routes in Europe" (McGettigan, 2013). "Voluntourism" relates to the idea of tourism for the purpose of volunteering. It is a new concept and has just started to develop on the market.. The sectors of the global wellness economy in 2015 are represented in Figure 4 on the basis of the market share inside wellness industry.. Figure 4. The Global Wellness Tourism Economy: 2013 & 2014. (Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 19). Clearly, wellness tourism plays a significant role in the economy being worth $563b USD and taking the second place after beauty and anti-aging sector. The sector of wellness tourism is strongly linked with the industries of mineral/thermal springs and spa, as the commercial companies tend to combine them inside the same facility.. 20.

(22) Even though Peurunka’s facilities offer both medical and wellness tourism services in one place for their customers, it should be noted that these two sub-segments are focused on different customer groups. Therefore, they operate in different dimensions, which must be explained. These sub-segments, obviously, overlap within the same organisation as customers are often interested in a combination of both types when they plan holidays with medical treatment. Nevertheless, in this particular study only wellness services are taken into account, therefore, in this case they will be analyzed separately from medical services segment. Figure 5 highlights the differences between the two sub-segments and demonstrates a bigger significance of the wellness in the current case.. Figure 5. Differences between medical tourism and wellness tourism. (Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 20).. The medical sub-segment, or paradigm as it is named by the authors of The Global Wellness Tourism Economy Report 2013-2014, is mainly concentrated on treatment of already existing health problems of a customer/patient. Meanwhile, the wellness paradigm focuses on the prevention of potential health-related problems. It considers different ways of understanding, adopting, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The 21.

(23) comparative figure focuses on differences between medical and wellness paradigms. It was developed on the basis of The Wellness Tourism and Medical Tourism Market Spectrum provided by Johnson, Puczkó, Smith & Ellis (2011, iii) in the research report for Global Spa Summit. Clearly, Peurunka’s service distribution reflects in those paradigms: Rehabilitation Center of Peurunka offers services of the medical paradigm (initially meant for war veterans who suffer from various post-injuries’ problems, now serving people with wide range of diseases), while Spa Center is meant for those who would like to take care of their health while on holidays or traveling but without having any need of medical treatment or assistance. The demand for wellness tourism among Russians traveling abroad is growing by approximately 10 percent. every year,. revealing that 30 percent of all the Russian tourists visiting foreign countries in 2013 went on health and wellness-related tours (Russian Union of Travel Industry, 2013).. Figure 6 illustrates a good variety of examples of the discussed tourism segments. As it was highlighted earlier, medical tourism and wellness tourism overlap in real life; however, it must be understood that they are two different markets requiring different approaches. The customers of each of these markets have different needs and wants, as well as different expectations and attitudes towards the services offered, despite such aspects often being misunderstood as they seem to be very similar. The features of wellness tourism are discussed in more detail later in this chapter. Peurunka on such positioning map is located on the line between wellness and medical tourism, so it can be considered on the same level as so-called integrative health centres (see Figure 6).. 22.

(24) Figure 6. The Wellness Tourism and Medical Tourism Market Spectrum (Global Spa Summit Report, 2011, iii).. One of the greatest trends of today’s society is living a healthy lifestyle: people are more concerned about their wellbeing and are likely to follow various health-oriented programs or adopt new habits in life that would be beneficial for their health. Elevated demand for fitness club service, or so-called healthification of the modern socities, s primarily appears in mind when we think about what kind of changes this trend has brought to the market. Nevertheless, wellness tourism services can be considered more than competitive in this situation. Hettler (1976) proposed Six Dimensions of Wellness Model (Figure 7), the application of which assumes creating awareness of the interrelation of each dimension and understating of their contribution to healthy living.. 23.

(25) Figure 7. The Six Dimensions of Wellness Model (National Wellness Institute, 2016).. The occupational dimension examines an individual’s personal satisfaction and improvement through work. Unfortunately, many people are put into such life conditions whereby their occupations are not a source of life satisfaction, for a variety of reasons. For example, they understand it as an obligation and continue doing it without any liking. Most of them think about wellness tourism as a way to recover in a short-term period after exhausting work and prepare themselves for another hard period. Undoubtedly, it is a way to recover and get more energy, but wellness phenomenon suggests implementing such a lifestyle that would be satisfying at any time and have a positive impact on one’s health. Why this dimension should be taken seriously? Simply because great life changes are typically avoided by most of us, such as change of a workplace, as it clearly involves additional stress for us and we would rather stick to the exhausting routine than go through tensive changes and fight for unclear future. Surely not all of us, but most of us. Even a 4-week holiday is not able to release all the stress and pressure that a person, who lacks occupational wellness, undergoes in his/her daily 24.

(26) routine: the mind will still expect hard times right after such holiday and will never be completely switched off from negative feelings. It is like trying to breathe as much fresh air as possible, knowing that you will not have it in five minutes: you can get enough to survive first minute but it is eventually going to be over and you will need it again.. The physical dimension focuses on the need for regular exercise. The most important aspect to understand in this case is that physical activity has to become a part of one’s lifestyle and not just something to have on a "must-do list", like washing the dishes after dinner despite not liking it. The idea is to perceive the right attitude towards regular muscle work of our body. People who attempted to follow diets without exercising regularly understand the struggle. Nutrition and workouts are interrelated, therefore, just eating healthy will never solve all the issues related to physical wellness. Regular workload for our muscles, bones, and cardiovascular system maintain our body in an better condition for a longer time and helps to fight different health problems that we face with poor environment and ageing. (Booth, Roberts Laye, 2012). The social dimension discusses the necessity of human communication and the dependence on interactions between each other. Wellness tourism involves a huge part of social communications for customers and is meant to have a positive impact on one’s social life even after the wellness tourism activity.. The intellectual dimension considers stimulation of mental activities. Brain work helps to maintain ourselves in a good health condition, influencing more areas of our body than just brain. The spiritual dimension recognizes the ways we search for meaning in our existence. Wellness services for tourists have largely been incorporating this aspect into their offers; firstly, as a trend in today’s society, and secondly, as a shakeup for an ordinary life. The emotional dimension centralizes awareness and acceptance of one’s feelings, as well as the ability to manage them.. 25.

(27) 2.2 Market segmentation in tourism Market segmentation is apparently one of the most well-known tools, which is widelyused by organisations in order to understand better their customers. It is based on dividing potential and/or actual customers into target groups according to certain criteria. This tool provides a possibility to compose "a portrait" of a typical customer in each of the groups/segments and determine their needs and wants. It also helps to estimate the most profitable consumer groups and focus on them if needed. Most common segmentation models for consumer markets involve four. characteristics:. demographic, geographic, behavioural, and psychographic. (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). These criteria are not always strictly applied in the same way. Different research (studies) implements new variations of this tool in order to acquire a deeper understanding of a particular phenomenon. Market segmentation principles are used in this study in order to answer the research questions and accomplish the main goal of indentation of a Russian tourist’s profile in Peurunka. Table 3 interprets the main idea of the market segmentation though typical criteria examples under each category, according to Ferrell & Hartline (2012).. Table 3. Common segmentation variables used in consumer markets. (Ferrell & Harline, 2012, 137). Demographic. age, gender, family, income, education, occupation, religion, race, etc.. Geographic. nation, country, region, city, state, etc.. Behavioral. knowledge, attitude, use of a product, occasions, price sensitivity. Psychographic. social class, lifestyle, personality, motives. Table 3 is adapted for the current research and provides a framework that describes a Russian customer in the given destination. Most of the criteria were defined during the research process and data analysis, but not all of them were found to be applicable, for example, price sensitivity is abandoned. Demographic and geographic segmentations are the most common ones that are used by companies around the world. In this case it is not an exception either, even though the geographic criteria was pre-defined by the 26.

(28) research data (Russian citizens). These two types are the key to understanding the background of the customers and forecast where potential customers like them can be found. Meanwhile, behavioral and psychographic segmentations take a deeper look into the connections between the customer and the product/service, as well as the attitude and expectations of the customer, including his/her psychological type. These types additionally contribute to the understanding of customers’ perceptions of brand image, product/service place in relation to competitors on the market, readiness to spend money on certain additional services.. The study of Pesonen and Tuohino (2015) discuss the interest of Finnish rural tourists in well-being products and services through comparison of online information search. The authors use a variation of market segmentation that is introduced as a cluster analysis. The participants of the cluster analysis study were segmented into groups according to their level of interest in sport-related activities. Even though the "cluster segmentation" study only measures the interest of potential rural tourists, not actual consumer behaviour, it appears to be more reliable as it provides an opportunity to forecast potential customers’ demand in certain wellness services and compose potentially profitable touristic packages. The research conducted by Stanciulescu, Diaconescu G., and Diaconescu D. (2015) focuses on the determination of meanings of health, spa, and wellness tourism. Both studies apply customer segmentation techniques in order to understand the phenomena and distinguish the appropriate consumer target groups. Nevertheless, these two research studies utilised different approaches of market segmentation. The second study, by Stanciulescu et al. (2015), differs from the. Pesonen’s and Tuohino’s (2015) study as it describes it from the point of customer’s purpose of visit to a wellness tourism facility. Pesonen and Tuohino (2015) provide the approach that seems to be more useful and appropriate for this particular research due to its possibility to divide consumers according to their grade of interest in sport activities ("sporties", wellbeing enthusiasts, "spa goers") and afterwards determine the special needs of each one of these "clusters". The tourist products of organisations can be adapted to these needs and/or demands. Moreover, every segment was evaluated regards the age, gender, preferred information channels, and online buying behaviour of the participants. Meanwhile, the other approach by Stanciulescu et al (2015) divided 27.

(29) consumers into groups according to the purpose of their visit along with description of their demographic and socio-economic profiles. It potentially makes them customers of different. tourist organisations because the decision of service purchase is. predetermined. This situation means that customers are less likely to choose any other services than the ones they have come for.. Furthermore, the fact that the study by Pesonen and Tuohino (2015) was conducted in Finland cannot be avoided. It gives the study an additional value because the current research is focused on Finnish tourism and wellness industry. The type of market segmentation used there gives it trustworthy soil for a new marketing-oriented study. This study can be applied as a basis for various marketing and strategic development research studies in tourism field due to its flexibility to change the criteria of segmentation. On the contrary, "purpose of visit" segmentation by Stanciulescu et al (2015) states that it is still unclear whether the multidimensional analysis of the segment, implemented in the research, is reliable. Therefore, the approach needs a proper test before it can be considered as a substitute to the common model of market segmentation.. The research conducted by Konu (2010) suggests a different framework for tourist segmentation but is still related to the basic concept of market segmentation described earlier. The framework identifies potential Finnish wellbeing tourism segments according to the tourists’ lifestyle factors, as well as it takes into consideration such possible difference between segments as demographic factors, traveling-related factors, and interests in diverse activities. As it was mentioned before, this research work is focused on a particular case company (Peurunka) and a particular customer segment defined by the demographic factor (nationality). The type of segmentation provided by Konu (2010) is applied for the current research when comparing statistical data collected from Peurunka of two groups: Russian customers and Finnish customers. Konu’s (2010) analysis of the collected data was interpreted through a factor-cluster method in order to group respondents into different segments. The findings of the study present six (6) segments: 28.

(30) 1. Sport and nature people interested in technology; 2. Home appreciating travelers; 3. Family and health-oriented sport and nature people; 4. Culture appreciative self-developers; 5. Material wellbeing appreciatives; 6. Indifferent about traveling and social issues.. These six segments of potential customers were formed based on general lifestyle factors as the main idea was to discover whether there is a possibility to capture potential wellbeing tourist segments.. The data collected for the current research, based on Peurunka Spa Hotel, can be segmented in the same way because the survey questions asked respondents for similar information: it is focused on defining Russian customers’ lifestyle and their interest in various activities inside a normal routine.. 2.3 Russian Tourists as a Customer Segment The international relations between Russia and many western countries changed notably in 2014 because of the actions of the Russian government in the Crimea region and towards Ukraine. Such changes affected not only international trade or political relations amongst the countries’ leaders, but also the citizens in terms of freedom of traveling, difficulties with issuing tourist visas, or even the variety of food products in the supermarkets.. The incorporation of Crimea into Russian Federation officially happened on 18 March 2014. As in any other conflict, there are two sides that support completely opposite ideas about such affair: from one point of view, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin illegally occupied Crimea, while from another side, Crimea was granted independence with such inclusion into the territory of Russia (Presidential Executive Office, 2014).. 29.

(31) Mainly the fact of Crimea becoming a part of Russian Federation caused negative reactions of the international society. The G7 (Group of Seven), the countries of NATO, and European Union considered such actions as aggression, occupation, and annexation of parts of Ukrainian territory, as well as violation of the international law (Dews, 2014; European Parliament, 2014; Carney, 2014). OSCE parliamentarians named Russia’s actions in Ukraine as "egregious violation of that country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity" (OSCE, 2014). Being rejected by western countries for its actions in Crimea, Russia was expelled from the G8 (Group of Eight) and also became one of the reasons for establishment of sanctions against Russia. "The Crimean authorities and Russia claim a legal basis for a Russian intervention in Crimea and a right to secession while the majority of states rejects that claim" (Marxsen, 2014). A part of Crimea’s population has historically consisted Russian natives. Therefore, Russia defends the legality of its actions by such concepts of international law as: the protection of nationals abroad and intervention upon invitation. The Russian government claimed the necessity to use military forces based on the threat of the security of Russian citizens on the Ukrainian territory because of the nationalist decisions approved by the leaders of Euromaidan movement (Matvienko, 2014).. All in all, the most influential factor for Russian tourists resulted to be the fall of Russian ruble against US dollar and Euro. Such situation caused a significant increase in the prices of Russian tour operators. A lot of them declared bankruptcy as they were losing more and more each day while the number of customers demanding refunds was growing at the same speed. (Russian Aviation, 2015). For instance, the average long-term exchange ratio was 1 EUR = ± 40-50 RUB until the political confrontations started in 2014. The graph (Figure 8) illustrates how the ratio rocketed three times in the past three years: in autumn 2014, in summer 2015, and again in winter 2016. The exchange ratio of over 60-65 RUB for one EUR is extremely high and influences the travel budget of Russian tourists negatively. In other words, it simply means that while traveling the tourists can afford way less for the same number of rubles than they could earlier with a lower exchange ratio of ruble to euro. (CBR, 2017). 30.

(32) Figure 8. Currency exchange ratio trends (EUR to RUB) during 2014-2017 (CBR, 2017). Other factors, such as restrictions on visa issuing or difficulties to enter certain counties, affected mainly government officials and power ministries who were banned from travelling overseas. These sanctions resulted in a loss of around 4 million potential tourists.. According to statistics, travel spending among Russian tourists increases slowly but steadily: "in the 1Q 2017 Russians, when travelling abroad, are now spending app. 40 percent more in comparison to 2016".. Tourists’ motivation to travel to particular destinations has been studied by many researchers who aimed to define the link between tourists’ behaviours and their motivation to visit places. One of the most widespread approaches to analyze tourist motivations is based on the two dimensions of push and pull factors (Uysal & Hagan, 1993). Push factors relate to the idea of people’s internal motivators (so-called "forces") to travel, while pull factors are considered to be, on contrary, external motivators of a 31.

(33) destination’s characteristics. Therefore, such dimensions target to implement a framework that distinguishes between the motivational factors and helps to identify particular attributes of potential customer groups. Uysal and Jurowski (1994) in their study focused on testing the above-mentioned factors refer to push factors as to more intangible ones linked to an individual’s desires and wishes for certain experiences, feelings (e.g. escape and relaxation.), or social status elevation. At the same time the authors define pull factors to include both tangible motivators, such as natural resources (e.g. waterfalls, mountains, beaches), cultural features (e.g. carnivals, museums, artefacts), and intangible ones that are created by external forces (for example, marketing image or potential benefit acquirement).. The motivations of Russian travelers to visit Peurunka are described further in this study after the research data has been analyzed and interpreted in a visual format. Meanwhile, the currency exchange ratio is one of the external forces that influence tourists’ motivation and possibilities to travel and decreases it, as can be seen from the incoming tourist flow trends to Finland from Russia in the table discussed earlier (see Table 1).. 32.

(34) 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND STUDY IMPLEMENTATION Peurunka has identified the need for orientation towards new potential customer groups and its goal is to attract those groups through available wellness services. Despite exceptional economic and political situation in many countries, a trend towards health-focused holidays is rather widespread worldwide.. This chapter introduces the research questions and describes the collected data and the participants of the questionnaire, as well as the criteria for selection of them. Additionally, the research methods that were implemented are defined and explained from the point of view of the research questions.. This study aims to define a set of factors, focusing on Russian customer target group, that can be used in Peurunka for improvement of services offered by the resort. Therefore, the objective was set to acquire the following:. • profound theoretical knowledge about wellness tourism and factors that influence its promotion,. • analysis of Russian travelers inside the Finnish tourism market and determination of its perspectives,. • understanding what positively or negatively influenced their experiences in Peurunka, along with. • examination and identification of Russian customer’s profile in general The implemented research will provide Peurunka with the customer portrait of Russian tourist based on services offered by the hotel.. 3.1 Research Questions The main purpose of the questionnaire was to identify the profile of the chosen customer group under certain conditions, that is specific tourism industry (wellness tourism) and specific destination (Peurunka Spa Hotel). 33.

(35) The main research question of this study is:. Who are the potential wellness customers of Peurunka Spa Hotel among Russian tourists? Consequently, the secondary questions of the research are the following:. • What are the profile features of Russians traveling to Finland? • What are the main reasons for Russian travelers to visit Peurunka? • How significant is sport and physical activity for Russian travelers in Peurunka and in everyday life?. 3.2 Data Collection The methodology selected for this research is a case study based on the questionnaire conducted by Vehmas and Piirainen in January 2014. It was part of a mutual research in active and wellness tourism at Peurunka. The study of 2014 forms the basis for the current study, as it provides a possibility to compare Russian tourists’ attitudes and behaviours before the tremendous changes in the international market in relation to the Peurunka’s services. Therefore, the given data allows to produce an analysis of the factors that could impact Russian tourists as service consumers and estimate possible factors that influence the level of attractiveness of the spa hotel for the mentioned target customer group.. A quantitative approach was applied for the current study as it is entirely based on the data collected earlier in the form of a questionnaire. The aim of this survey was to detect the expectations, perceptions, and experiences of Russian tourists in Peurunka, as well as to evaluate their satisfaction with the service delivery in the facility. Additionally, this study examined wellness events and services in the hotel in order to produce ideas for potential development and improvement in the future and make more attractive to the aforementioned customer group. 34.

(36) The questionnaire included four parts, comprised of 39 questions (see appendix), where the majority of them are closed-ended questions. The first part of the questionnaire was focused on demographic information (such as age, gender, job and marital status), while the second part — on the spa hotel as a destination for the tourists from Russia. The questions in the second part also propose the respondents to evaluate the services, to explain the reasons behind their choice, and his/her interest in being involved in physical activities during the visit. The third part aims to understand the customer’s profile: free time activities, interest in sports, level of participation in tourism. The fourth, and the final, part of the survey attempts to evaluate customer’s general impression of Peurunka and the overall level of customer satisfaction.. This study describes a group of respondents that share the same culture (Russians) in order to be able to identify certain features of this customer group and to better understand their experiences within Peurunka. The key idea is to discover common aspects in these experiences, which may help to evaluate strong and weak points of the organisation and to determine the factors that have the major value for this target group.. 3.3 Data Description Despite the data being collected already in 2014, it remains valuable as it aims to analyze the behavioural characteristics of Russian travelers in Peurunka, which do not change with time as cultural background maintains certain characteristics. During the time period of three years (2014-2017) the economic situation in the international market has changed tremendously, which has affected people’s ability to travel; meanwhile, the factors that attract them to a destination/facility have remained somewhat unchangeable as they are based on values. Furthermore, the collected data has never been used or analyzed and still remains to be valuable material for the field research and for the case company.. 35.

(37) Due to the fact that the data for this research study was collected in 2014, not all questions are utilized for the analysis, as not all of them are found to be useful for the current research but contribute to a good material to further studies related to this topic.. The overall number of responses was 75, out of which several were not fully completed (not all the questions were answered). Nevertheless, all responses were considered valid for the present analysis.. The question about the date of birth of the visitors was answered by 67 participants (89,3 %). The median age of the tourists visiting Peurunka was 41 years for men and 38 years for women whereas the median age for all respondents was 37 years. The analysis of the gender distribution in the sample (N=75) revealed that it is almost equally divided between women (49,3 %) and men (50,7 %). These results provide a solid foundation for the identification of the general profile of a Russian visitor in Peurunka.. 36.

(38) 4 RESULTS The chapter presents the data collected and analyzed during the research with the use of SPSS program. It illustrates the results acquired and the relationships among the observed outcomes. The findings are described in detail in order to compile the basis for answering the research questions in the next chapter. Therefore, each one of the three (3) subchapters is dedicated to a certain research problem that investigates a set of questionnaire topics and relationships between them in order to answer the research questions of the study.. Table 4 illustrates the link between research questions and the questions chosen from the survey (SQ is used further to indicate "Survey Question" or the number of the question from the questionnaire). Table 4 also helps to understand which survey questions were adapted for this study and which were left apart. As it was mentioned earlier in the study, not all the questions from the survey were found to be applicable for the current research as they initially were designed for a different research.. Table 4. The link between the research questions and the questions from the survey. №. Research Question (RQ). RQ1. Who are the potential wellness customers of Peurunka Spa Hotel among Russian tourists?. RQ2. What are the profile features of Russians traveling to Finland?. RQ3. What are the main reasons for Russian travellers to visit Peurunka?. 11, 15-16, 19, 21. RQ4. How significant is sport and physical activity for Russian travellers in Peurunka and in everyday life?. 22-23, 29. Survey Question №(SQ) 36 1-4, 6-10, 13, 20, 39. 4.1 Profile of Russian tourists in Peurunka In order to analyse some of the relationships linked to the age of respondents, the age value (SQ2) was also coded into the age categories, dividing the sample into four (4) of them. The categories were selected to be the following: 37.

(39) Table 5. Age categories of visitors of the study. Age. Age category. 0-17 years old. Underage visitors. 18-30 years old. Young adults. 31-50 years old. Middle-age adults. 50 years old and above. Older adults and senior visitors. As illustrated in the Figure 9, the age category of 31-50-year-olds represents the majority in this sample. In general, adults of over 30 years old are more prevalent visitors in Peurunka (>70 %).. Figure 9. Distribution of the respondents by age category.. As for the place of residence of the respondents (SQ7), it is clearly seen that St. Petersburg (Russia) dominates in the list with 57,3 percent. This is quite expected since St. Petersburg is the closest large Russian city to Finland. As Russia Market Report 38.

(40) 2017 states, Helsinki and the South Eastern parts of Finland are the most popular places to visit by the Russian visitors" (Akzhigitova, R., Shakhnovich, A., 2017). Surprisingly, Moscow (Russia) takes over the second place in this list (22,7 %), which demonstrates that the destination is known among travelers living far away (not close to the Russian-Finnish border) in comparison to all the other places of residence represented in this sample. The results also prove that new customer groups (from other cities/towns than North-Karelian ones or St. Petersburg) are reachable for Peurunka if the right approach is applied. Later on, this research analyses more data coming from those customers from Moscow in order to detect their travel motivations.. Figure 10 illustrates a chart with the level of education among survey participants (SQ4), where a university level of education obviously dominates (72 %). Figure 10. Russian visitors in Peurunka by the level of education.. 39.

(41) It is followed by high school/college (12 %) and primary/secondary school (9,3 %) but these two numbers include school and university students that participated in the survey who are still on the way to one of the degrees or diplomas according to their age. Furthermore, more than 58 percent of the visitors from Russia are hired employees (SQ6), while other 13,3 percent earn money from their own business. School or college students are represented by some 17,3 percent and usually visit with their parents or relatives that dog on family trips to Peurunka.. Another dimension to take into consideration for a comprehensive picture of Russian customer’s profile in Peurunka is marital status of the visitors. As shown in figure 11, married people are common guests from Russia (63,5 %), while divorced seems to be the least probable category of visitors (2,7 %).. Figure 11. Marital status of Russian visitors in Peurunka.. The average income of visitors is discussed in the next chapter (chapter 5), using some detailed information (SQ8). Self-evaluated health state of visitors (SQ11) is also presented later in chapter 5 in a form of a histogram. 40.

(42) The participants of the research also were asked to what kind of tourist category would they relate themselves and were given a number of options (SQ20). From the table 6 it becomes clear that family category is definitely the most common among Russian travellers (74,6 %), while tourists seeking for new adventure and tourists attending conferences are more exceptional for Peurunka (1,3 % and 2,6 % accordingly).. Table 6. Tourist category distribution among Russian customers in Peurunka. Tourist Category. Percentage of visitors. Health. 8 %. Family. 74,6 %. Conference. 2,6 %. Sport tourism. 6,6 %. Self-enjoyment. 6,6 %. New adventures. 1,3 %. Holidays Other. 8 % 2,6 %. The profile of a Russian customer in Peurunka is also fulfilled in this study by determining the information channels that created awareness among Russian customers about Peurunka and its services (Figure 12). The participants were offered to choose one of the six (6) information sources, where one of them was named "Other" and gave an option to specify what kind of another source was used (SQ39). "Internet" included all the information sources of the web apart from social media, which was extracted into a independent category. "Word-of-mouth" is a name adopted for the study, while the questionnaire used a category named "Friends/neighbourghs/etc." to appear more descriptive and understandable for the respondents. Additionally, "Printed ads" category involved all those advertisements from newspapers or magazines (not distributed online), and finally, "Direct marketing" implied reaching customers directly via telephone calls or personal emails.. 41.

(43) Figure 12. Information channels used by Russian tourists to discover the services offered by Peurunka.. Analysing the popularity of the above-mentioned sources of information that our participants used, the results were surprising because of the low usage of social media channels to find information about the hotel. These results show that Peurunka’s social media channels are not adapted for Russian tourists: there is a need to increase its presents in common Russian social media channels (such as the social network VK), as well as to customize posts in other channels (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) for this target customer group. Currently the posts in these media channels are not translated to Russian language, as well as the hashtags, that can be very helpful to widespread the information for those who are interested in spending holidays in Finland, are only in Finnish and occasionally in English.. A One-way ANOVA test was performed in order to determine whether there are any significant relationship between the age of respondents and the channel they used to acquire the information about the spa hotel. The Levene’s test for homogeneity of variances determined that the sig.= .195 which is >0.05 and means that the variances are equal. There was no statistically significant difference between groups as determined by one-way ANOVA (F(4,54) = .980, p= .426). Therefore, a Tukey post-hoc test was not performed. 42.

(44) Despite typical expectation that the younger the traveler is the more likely he/she will use the Internet and social media to find information about destination, facility, or services, it was proved to be not applicable in the current circumstances. Russian visitors of Peurunka showed that regardless the age they are more likely to use Internet for information search about holiday destinations, and also they tend to rely on the information from their acquaintances, such as friends, neighbourghs and colleagues.. Summing up the results discussed in this subchapter, a number of statements can be concluded about Russian visitor’s profile in Peurunka. First of all, middle-age adults (31-50 years old) is clearly the most common category of visitors. As for the cities of residence, St.Petersburg (57,3 %) and Moscow (22,7 %) are the two where the majority of Russian customers comes from. Therefore, residents of big cities are considered to be more aware of Peurunka’s existence and services. Most of the travelers from Russia in Peurunka are highly educated people, holding a university degree (72 %). Describing demography of the target group more in details, it was determined that Peurunka is attractive destination for mainly married travellers (63,5 %).. Furthermore, the Internet and word-of-mouth are the most popular channels that guests from Russia used to find information about Peurunka. No significant relationship between the age of respondents and the channel they used to acquire the information about the spa hotel was identified. Additionally, the majority of the tourists are categorized as family holiday seekers as they travel to the destination together with their family members.. Considering the results mentioned above, it can be concluded that the answer to one of the research question "What does the profile of visitors of Peurunka looks like?" is given in this subchapter. The findings regard these questions are also extended in the chapter 5.. 43.

(45) 4.2 Destination attractiveness: reasons to visit In the survey the respondents were asked to rate each of the possible factors influencing their decision to visit Peurunka on a scale from 1 (very influencing factor) to 5 (not influencing at all factor). Among the listed factors, this study particularly focuses on three of them that are closely related to wellness tourism: (a) sport services, (b) spa services, and (c) health services (SQ21).. Figure 13. Sport services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Hotel Spa.. Sport services involve sport facilities (such as tennis courts, ice rink and gym ) and rental of sport equipment, while spa services consist of saunas, pools with massaging devices, water slides. Health services include mainly services dedicated to rehabilitation and therapy (e.g. physiotherapy). In order to understand what factors actually had significant influence on the customers’ decision, only the ratings of 1 (very influencing) and 2 (quite influencing) were taken into consideration (Figure 13). Meanwhile, the other ratings of 3 (I don’t know), 4 (a bit influencing), and 5 (not influencing) were 44.

(46) chosen to be left out from this analysis. Figure 13 shows that sport services have a strong impact on over 59 percent. of respondents in the current sample: "very. influencing" (rating 1) for 31,2 percent and "quite influencing" for 28,1 percent of them. Sport services became an important part of modern tourism facilities that usually offers them an opportunity to earn extra value among its visitors.. The bar chart in Figure 14 represents the impact of health services on Peurunka visitors’ choice. Out of all the respondents (N=56) in the sample 28,6 percent identified health services as a "quite influencing" factor (rating 2), while 25 percent — as a "very influencing" factor (rating 1). These results demonstrate that health services in Peurunka are well-known among the Russian tourists and appear to have an impact on more. than53 % of visitors. Figure 14. Health services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Spa Hotel.. 45.

(47) Spa services result to be the most influencing factor for Russian tourists: almost 45 percent of respondents rate them as ‘very influencing" and over 26 percent as ‘quite. influencing", which makes spa a very powerful factor that should be advertised to Russians in the best possible way (Figure 15). Figure 15. Spa services as a factor influencing Russian customers’ decision to visit Peurunka Hotel Spa.. Analysing the awareness of Russian visitors of Peurunka services and the frequency of their visits, it was discovered that 42,7 percent of all the respondents are not the 1st time visitors in Peurunka (SQ15). As aforementioned, it was also decided to examine the reasons to travel to Peurunka among Moscow residents because this customer segment has a potential to become more frequent in the hotel. The results illustrate that 47 percent or visitors who permanently reside in Moscow have visited Peurunka before (SQ15). Meanwhile, among return customers there are several who visited only once before (57,1 %), but also there are even those who have visited the hotel 5 times before (28,6 %). 46.

(48) Along with that, the participants indicated the main reasons for their visit to Peurunka (SQ16) in the following way (Table 7):. Table 7. Main reason for a visit to Peurunka among Russian customers. Main reasons for visit. Percentage of visitors. Holiday- or tourism-related reasons. 56,2 %. Fitness/sport or sport tourism reasons. 32,9 %. Health care and treatment. 4,1 %. Other reasons. 4,1 %. Business trip. 1,4 %. Improvement of wellbeing. 1,4 %. Despite fitness- and sport-related reasons taking the second place after holiday/tourism motives, they clearly show a great potential (33 %). Undoubtedly, such push factor for travel is very new for Russians and it has just started to gain popularity. Therefore, it is critical not to miss out this potential and attract more customers to travel for sport and fitness reasons.. Figure 16 illustrates how Peurunka’s services are positioned on the scope of the paradigms that differentiate medical tourism and wellness tourism in order to underline that these industries perform distinctively from each other, as well as they target customers with different needs. The figure was introduced earlier in this study (see Figure 5, page 18) as the basis to explain what particular field this research examines and to determine where Peurunka’s services are exactly located on the scope offered by Global Wellness Institute.. 47.

(49) Figure 16. Positioning of Peurunka Spa Hotel on the scope of medical and wellness tourism markets (adapted from Global Wellness Institute, 2015, 11).. The services of Peurunka are split into these two categories. On the left side of this health continuum, it serves tourists seeking medical treatment with its Rehabilitation Center. It offers a wide range of health diagnostics, tests, and treatment plans with professional medical personnel. On the other side of the continuum, the hotel provides wellness tourists with a great number of services covering the elements of wellness model and satisfying the needs of those seeking maintenance and improvement of their health, as well as prevention from possible malfunctions or potential problems.. As the results of the questionnaire show, Russian tourists in Peurunka evaluate their health to be in a very good condition: the majority (25,4 %) indicated it to be 8 out of 10 (where 10 means excellent state). The histogram (Figure 17) demonstrates the distribution of health state self-evaluation by Russian customers (SQ11). The health condition is mainly rated between 7 to 10 (8 to 11 on the histogram as the distribution 48.